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New Candidate for "WORST Mother of 2017!" You Would Never Guess What This Woman Did to her 9-Year-Old Daughter...

Ericka Joseph kills self and daughter rather than sending girl back to Colombian father

A mother, who is a former Marine, killed her nine-year-old daughter before taking her own life in an alleged murder-suicide in Florida.

Ericka Joseph and her daugher Akili's bodies were discovered at Joseph's home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Authorities believe Ericka shot and killed her daughter before turning the gun on herself because she didn't want to return the child back to her father.

Akili was scheduled to fly back to Bogota, Colombia with her father, Joseph's ex-husband. He had been in town and even had dinner with his daughter the night before the murder-suicide.

Akili's father showed up to the home to pick his daughter up and fly back to Colombia, but no one came to the door.

A family member found the woman and her daughter shot to death just after 5:20 a.m. Tuesday in a home along the 2000 block of Northwest 29th Terrace, Fort Lauderdale Detective Keven Dupree said.

Joseph shared custody of her daughter, who was supposed to have returned to Colombia on Tuesday after visiting for the holidays, according to Ericka's brother Tony Williams.

Akili's father went to pick her up Tuesday when he realized something was wrong, Williams said.

"He was here to pick [Akili] up," Williams said. "The pickup routine was uncharacteristic — that's how we came about to learn [of their deaths]."

Neighbors later reported that Joseph had closed the hurricane shutters on her home the night before, even though there were no storm warnings for the area. Neighbors also said they heard screaming and gunshots from the home.

Family members did not pick up on any warning signs before the deaths of Ericka and Akili.

Joseph's brother, Tony Williams, stated that she appeared to be transitioning from her military life to civilian life just fine.

He told WSVN, "It's a rough transition, but she was coping with that very well, we thought. She might have been battling something that was unknown to the family at this time, which now caused a great tragedy."

"My niece was a vibrant young girl and she loved sports. She was outgoing and smart," Williams said. "It's sad, a tragedy, and we still don't know what happened as of right now."

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